A recent billboard campaign placed by Champaign, Illinois hip hop record label Up A Notch Records apparently encouraged local student organization UC Hip Hop to “vandalize” this billboards to achieve more publicity. The boards, with the headline, “Hip Hop Rots Your Brain,” were accompanied by a logo for the fictitious Coalition of Responsible and Attentive Parents whose acronym, not surprisingly is CRAP.
One of the boards was vandalized to read, “Stereotypes, Racism, Ignorance Rots Your Brain.” The campaign and the vandalizing are hot topics of discussion on a UC Hip Hop and LiveJournal forum. The cynic in us, along with the all too convenient images and forum commentary, makes us think the whole thing is manufactured but, then again, we are very cynical.
